Pokémon Kingdoms
by Paldin
Summary: Set in a new region hundreds of years before the Pokéball was even invented. Enter a whole new world involving the creatures you thought you knew - until now!
1. Prologue

PROLOGUE

Cursed Kingdom – The village of misfortune

The white should have given it away. The white was the harbinger of all things wrong and the people knew it. That's why they all despise the white. And the black came soon after although in a very different form. The skies went black and the soot floated down unpleasantly from above. The mountain in the distance bled with an orange liquid that flowed down lazily like a river burning everything in its path.

Most of the villagers had already fled but his family was stubborn to a fault. This was the unluckiest village in the entire south. Only weeks before the white had come the green. It was hidden in the men's faces at first and made them dizzy and hot but when the ugly splotches covered their faces they began to do more. The shrieks, screams and coughs broke the silence and it was only when the red came from their mouths that they would stop. Then they would never speak again.

He heard a voice from miles away but nothing could break through his barrier. In here he was safe from it all. He hated the white and the black and the green and the red. His father had tried to help the green people by making them queer potions and remedies. He was the professor of the south and his goal was to learn all there was to know about the dangers of the land. His goal was to learn about the shaking of the earth and the raging of the winds. And to learn of the strange creatures that seemed to be at the centre of every difficulty our planet faced. He was a professor researching the strange Pokémon.

The voice from miles away came again. He could vaguely make out the words and knew they related to him but in his barrier the world didn't matter. It could be carefully observed without panic and consequence. Here the orange wouldn't reach him and the green wouldn't scare him.

The pain felt like it belonged somewhere else. It was on his cheek where the distant owner of the voice had slapped him. And then it came again and again. The world slowly began to take shape around him. The brightness of his friend's blonde hair was what hit him first. Although his hand quickly followed with more slaps. "Come on! Why do you always do this at the worst possible times? Come back to reality!" was what he was saying. At first he only saw the lips moving but the words began to make sense to him now where they seemed foreign before.

"This whole place is going to go down in flames! Your father's already got all the sick villagers together and we're ready to leave." His friend was screaming in his face. "If you don't come then you better not think I'll stay with you!"

It took a minute to remember who he was and what he was doing. He seemed to go through most of his life as a mute locked in his own little world but the words ran off his lips when they needed to. "Alright. I'm coming already but stop hitting me!"

And then they were running through the village. The houses were wooden with straw roofing clumsily made. The village had gone through enough rough times that making any better housing proved too expensive and the village scarcely dealt in craftsmanship. It was a lonely little farming village that struggled to get through life. The land seemed infertile most of the time and whenever a good run of crops did some there was always something else that meant they couldn't make the best of it.

It was like that now too. The crops had grown better than they had in years he'd been told but now the lava would flood down and burn the village's labours to an unrecognizable heap of ash. The wooden housing would set ablaze too and the village would be abandoned or the people would have to start from scratch. The people were strong and sturdy however and not easily crushed. Even if all the housing in the village burned down there'd be a few men who slept out in the night sky refusing to move on.

Further along the village his father could be seen with a large wooden carriage to contain the green people and move them from the village. His fathers voice was loud and commanding toughened from carrying many burdens. It was the voice of a leader and one thing he had not inherited from his father. His voice was weak and rarely heard.

When his father saw him there were no smiles but the panic in his eyes was obvious. It was out of place even with the lava on the way. They would escape the danger with all the green people was what he'd been told. The lava was nothing to fear. But there was obviously something else to fear and it had his father and the green people scared. He listened carefully wondering if he would hear some new disaster.

The blackness fell from the sky and the flames came with it. Flames blew over the houses and the orange was close now. The green people had seen it too and were hobbling away from the carriage and father was silent for the first time disbelief obvious in his eyes. Those eyes that said 'this is the unluckiest village in all the region.'

The fire reflected in his red eyes that were as beautiful as glass stained with a hundred different shades of red. The trail of orange followed his tail as he flicked it through the air. The crimson wings beat the wind keeping him afloat and sending gusts that angered the flames and made them dance wildly. He seemed to glow with the colour of blood.

But what will remain scarred in every memory was the colour. The skin was black. Blacker than the smoke that consumed them. He decided at that point he really did hate the white but the black was worse. The black was worse than the green or red. It had taken on form and now it would kill him.

His friend was shouting again asking him to snap out of it. He was obviously shaken by the appearance. It was not normal. The next sound cut through the barrier. It would signal the fire and then the fire would come from its mouth. It would burn him unless he ran. His friend was still pulling at him and he knew he had to run. That moment seemed to break time itself.

His friend was crying when he dropped his hand. Then the footsteps could be heard leaving the proximity of the barrier. There was only him and the dragon. And then there was the fire.


	2. Chapter 1

PART 1 – Black and White

Earth Kingdom – Land Temple - Sozin

He sat watching the sunrise while the Shieldon tackled each other playfully. He made a habit of watching the sunrise with them. They were the only friends he had to watch it with. Nobody else would want to even look at him. But the sunrise was something he loved to watch in the peaceful hours of the morning when the temple was still quiet. He would put up his barrier and close out the world. The warm colours of the sunrise tended to keep him calm but today he'd woken to a nightmare. It was the very familiar nightmare that had happened to him three years earlier.

There were days he would remember that time. Sometimes he could go weeks without thinking about it and other times he thought of it every day. The days he remembered it he would put his barrier up the tightest and rarely speak to anybody. The isolation was easy for him. He could escape to a fantasy world where he was a king or a great dragonslayer. He would imagine the great dragons of legend. The long emerald Dragon that ruled over the skies. Sometimes he would ride on his back and he would be the one ruling the skies.

And sometimes that majestic green Dragon turned black. It looked horrible when it was black. The majestic dragon would drop from the sky and it wouldn't be the dragon from legends at all but the black Pokémon from three years ago. Its red eyes would meet his and then he'd be dancing with the flames. The flames always led. They would dance wildly out of control and punish him. Then they would drain into his chest and form burns that went from his chest down his legs and all down his right arm and finish on his hand.

He used to try to convince himself the burns were not real and it was just his fantasy world playing cruel tricks on him but when he looked down at himself he would know. Blasted fool he was for putting his hand out to try and block fire. Lucky fool he was that he turned his left side away so at least his left hand was still clean.

He never thought he would die there. In the barrier nothing bad happened to him. A Pokémon he would later learn was called Aerodactyl later found him and brought him in front of an elderly man with a baldhead and solid face found him.

His name was Goto and the man was a senex in charge of a temple to the northwest in the distant Earth Kingdom. He had been awarded the title of senex for his ability to turn bone Pokémon back into flesh. Many feared this ability but when he submitted to the Stone King he was pardoned and the Stone King granted him a chance to serve under him. This must have happened a long time ago as that Stone King is now replaced and the old man retired to the temple of land.

The old man escorted him to the temple and it had taken days. The old senex Goto had kept his distance but occasionally asked the questions that needed asking. "I'm…not telling you anything" was the response he got when he first tried. But through patience Goto slowly wore the child down and got the answers he was looking for.

The young boy finally conceded defeat. "Sozin" he whispered one night on the campfire. Goto only looked at him with heavy brown eyes "What's that boy?"

"My name...you were asking for it." The boy looked away reluctantly. "That's what you wanted to know isn't it?"

The old man smiled. "Ah. So your name is Sozin. What a fitting name for a boy like you" he gave the boy a friendly smile "it does seem like you've just risen from the flames. Why don't you tell me your story?"

That was three years past now though. Sozin's life now was Land Temple. It was another place he didn't fit in and grew up excluded from everybody else.

"I don't need them anyway. Being alone in my barrier has always got me through a tough situation."

The kids at the temple had taken to calling him Numel mockingly because of the burns all over his body and how the burns were as ugly as the splotches on Numel's back. That's why he tended to ignore most of the people in the temple. Only a few people in the temple didn't call him Numel and he decided that those were the people he'd take his barrier down for. And there were the Shieldon as well. The temple was home to six Shieldon. They were the offspring of the Bastiodon that was the first bone Pokémon sage Goto had resurrected. Bastiodon still spent her days with the master and the Shieldon made their home in the temple. They allowed the children of the temple to get to know Pokémon and were the protectors of the temple and kept them safe. Sozin liked them.

Two of the Shieldon slammed their heads together and flumped to the floor. But when one of them found his feet and leapt up before the other it was a victorious moment and he let out a cry of victory. Sozin let his guard down a little and picked up the victorious Shieldon to give him a hug. Aside from the shield on their heads they could be quite soft and Sozin found himself holding them a lot. A giggle rang out from behind him. "How cute." He tensed and turned around sharply.

He recognized the girl and knew she was one of the few to not call him Numel. She was taller than him with a slim physique. Her eyes were a light amber and her long straight hair was a light brown. It wouldn't be a lie to say she was pretty. Sozin flushed red but quickly grew irritated. For a minute he'd dreamt it was him she'd called cute but the only way anybody would is if they were mocking him. She obviously meant the Shieldon. He was angry at himself and then carried on watching her with a frown on his face. She merely blinked. "You seem…upset." She frowned and turned away her hair flicking in the process. "You better get ready for class though. You don't have long now."

He found himself sulking until the temple monks rang the bell.


	3. Chapter 2

Earth Kingdom – Land Temple – Katsumoto

The temple was annoyingly loud in the morning. They shoved the kids all in the same living quarters and made them put up with each other and every annoying habit they had. The worst part was when they woke up in drones though. It was too early in the morning and he tried to sleep in as much as he could but it almost seemed impossible to get any sleep with these mugs he had to deal with.

His ears were great so he rarely missed the sounds and found it difficult to just ignore them. Arceus be damned for giving him such hearing. At least if his sight was great he could shut his eyes whenever he felt like it. But it had positives. No whispers escaped him and no secret snuck past him. He heard it when a boy snuck out his dorm. He knew every morning Numel would wake up and wander off before the others and play with his pets. The morning would follow with an energetic kid named Ryan waking up minutes before the bell rang and getting ready to run out the door. Then once the bells were sounded this stage of noise happened as everybody else clambered out of bed. Some days he couldn't take it and once had yelled for them all to shut up at the top of his voice. Silence had fallen on that day and the next. But they quickly forgot and sound returned.

He knew half the temple kids were scared of him and quickly grew to hate him because of that. Some of the braver ones were indifferent towards him but the biggest cowards became his friends. They just made his reputation worse. All the slime in the temple had manifested under his rule. They were the most pathetic but he didn't stop them. Threatening the weak had no amusement factor. If one of them made him angry he wouldn't hesitate to put them down a peg but otherwise he never bullied the weak unlike the people around him. Yet it was him who seemed to be the hated wolf in the herd of sheep that had formed around him. He kind of hated this place.

He waited for the pin drop silence. They wouldn't expect him at class now because he'd never turned up early to begin with. The classes weren't interesting but he recognized their importance. The lessons taught the pupils about the dangers in the world and about the Pokémon that existed. There would be scrolls with careful drawings of the different types of Pokémon. They learned where those Pokémon inhabited and what weaknesses they had. It was to make sure the children could protect themselves and others. Their bodies were trained as well to be able to endure. But their knowledge and power were restricted to defensive purposes. That was the major flaw in Goto's training methods. They would never learn to kill here and acquire true strength.

It was like that when he went to class today too. The scrolls sprawled across the floor detailed two Pokémon called Mandibuzz and Braviary. There were images of their pre-evolutions and information listing their known abilities and methods of attacking and how to successfully defend against them. The teacher was a fat monk with a dusty yellow colour set of robes. They were the robes worn by every monk in the temple. The pupils were expected to wear darker brown robes that still resembled the dusty yellow colour that the monks wore. The colours represented two of the types - ground and rock. The senex of the temple wore robes with both the dusty yellow colour of ground and the light brown colour of rock. But with his robe came a special red trimming that represented the deity that this temple was dedicated to. It was the red of Groudon.

The fat monk stared with disappointed eyes as he approached "Katsumoto. Please make yourself comfortable. You're late for class again."

Cocky old git. Katsu went and found his place. He was quickly joined by a group of five others. They were the vermin that lingered about him using his name for leverage. There were twenty children in the school, twelve boys and eight girls. It was the only place of learning open to the outcasts. Most people in the temple had a difficult past. But Katsu tried not to linger on the past. Now all that mattered was the future. He had to execute his vengeance. Something that would never happen resting peacefully at the temple even with all the knowledge he learned. He needed real experience. The time was coming.

The fat monk called off the lesson and resigned to the temple's main hall and once he was out of earshot the wall of sound was back. One of the lambs that surrounded him moved. Gallium was a big kid of fifteen and two years Katsu's senior but when Gallium attempted to plant his fist on the younger boys cheek it wasn't long before he submitted. The broken fingers had healed quickly enough and once they did those fists seemed to be only 'for the sake of Katsu!'

He was looking to pick a fight. It would be one of the weak ones. Katsu locked his eyes on Numel. The kid made himself a target by acting solitary and the expression of irritation on his face today would just highlight him more as an option for Gallium's ridiculous bullying. Katsu got up to take his leave.

"It's okay isn't it boss?" came Gallium's gleeful words. How stupid must Gallium be to think that he cared what he'd do with Numel? "Do what you want" was the reply.

As he walked away the eruption of Gallium's voice came from behind. The commotion was about to start like it sometimes would. His ears couldn't help picking up the words that were now no more than whispers.

"Your eyes piss me off." That one was Gallium.

"Leave him alone will you?" It was a girl's voice.

"Don't get in my way." There was a shriek from the girl.

"I'll not stand by and watch." That one was from Ryan. Now there was somebody with actual backbone. He was impulsive but strong and one of the few people worthy of respect in the temple.

But never did he hear Numel's voice. That was what irritated Katsu the most about the kid. Numel was silent. It was a silence that Katsu desired but when nothing came from his mouth it made him uneasy. It wouldn't be the worst thing if Gallium caused Numel to scream a little. At least then Numel would remember that he had a voice just like everyone else.


	4. Chapter 3

Earth Kingdom – Land Temple – Sozin

The girl flicked her hair at the other table. She had scrapes running down the side of her arm now from when she'd fallen. He watched her intensely. The way she reacted when her friends said something and would giggle. The way her lips parted when she gave a reply to what they said. Her hands handled the utensils for eating elegantly. Somebody like her had protected him. He didn't understand it at all and all he could hear running through his head was her soft voice. It was during the morning when she'd seen him playing with the Shieldon and those two words struck him. "How cute" she'd said and it caused him pain but now the words were playing in a beautiful way. The words edited in his mind and her voice told him wonderful things. "You're cute," she would say. He had protected him when she didn't need to almost as if she cared for him. He didn't know her name. He was afraid to ask. She'd protected him when she didn't have to.

She'd stood between him and Gallium in an attempt to stop him hurting him. Gallium often targeted him so why she had done it now and never before was beyond him but she had. And because of him she'd had her arm scraped. But she had her own protector in Ryan. He was a tall kid older than him by a year or so. His blonde hair was spiked up crazily and he wore a red and white headband around his forehead. Most noticeably his muscles were an impressive sight that showed he trained his body more than the average kid in the temple.

He'd scolded Sozin after complaining that he was at fault for not trying to defend himself. "Because of you that girl got caught up trying to protect you and ended up hurting herself!" he'd yelled in his face "I didn't try and protect you because I thought you should stand up for yourself first. That girl is ten times stronger than you'll ever turn out to be at this rate. Man up!"

The festivities during mealtime were always a noisy ordeal. The monks and students would all compete to speak over each other entertaining their friends with gossip of the day and tall tales from years ago. They gathered in the hall a small while before the food was actually prepared for the social side of the temple. Dinner was the only time when everybody was joined in the same room. Some people tended to skip as much of the meal as they could. Usually Sozin was one of those types in fact but today he'd had the girl whose name he didn't know on his mind. He took the chance to watch her a little longer. In the corner one of the monks had seated on a grey fur pelt and began to bellow out a tune.

There once was a warrior greatest with his steel

A hero and king and these are his ordeals!

Far down in the south was the great kingdom of fire

The easternmost land was plagued with thugs, thieves and liars

The king's responsibility was too much for him to bear.

His capital had troubles and he had no soldiers spare.

So the great hero of steel marched on the red kings door

"Give me the land of the east or prepare yourself for war!"

The fire king laughed and ordered all his lords

"Kill this petty traitor and bring me his steel sword"

But the great hero cut deep into their bone!

He marched to the east and gave himself a throne.

He gained the peoples love and protected them from harm.

The people were his anchor and their cheers were his charm.

But soon the angered flames would rise to singe and burn

They blocked him off and gave him nowhere else to turn.

He found himself some allies within his newfound land

He promised them riches if they joined his fine band.

A great being of darkness proved his best ally

Caused the flames to sleep and made its children cry.

In the dark of night the steel swarmed strong

Cut up the sleeping soldiers and all their Pokémon.

The steel roared triumphant and hailed their new king

It was the hero Umphus of whom the singers sing.

He claimed half the kingdom and won himself a throne.

And to all his loyal people he granted a new home.

But there was an unsung hero in that Great War.

The great being of darkness came knocking on his door.

He demanded half the kingdom to quench his great thirst.

And when he was refused half the land was cursed.

And so the Dark and Steel began the second age.

It was the start of a chapter - the turning of the page.

Applause filled the temples dining hall when the last words hummed through. A group of girls had gone to sit around the monk in the corner to better listen to the song. The girl whose name he did not know was also there with her eyes wide with excitement. She obviously was the type of girl who liked the songs. They were depictions of great heroes and outlaws during history. That particular song was how the first Steel King Umphus had claimed his land and sparked the second age hundreds of years ago. They were now far into the fifth age and the entire region had changed drastically in that time.

It was a story that was sung frequently and yet one he had not heard sung for many years. Umphus had lived in the land that would later become the Earth Kingdom before he marched to the Fire Kingdom. Besides that though there was no relevance that caused it to be sung in the temple halls. The only times Sozin had heard it was when he had grown up in the Cursed Kingdom a lifetime ago before the burns.

But there was a situation stirring in the south that now required that song to be sung in these halls and the history to be known. He did not know what the problem was but the fact it would be heard after all these years must mean something. Goto wished for the music sung in the halls to be about relevant history so the children could learn from them. Sozin knew Goto's way of thinking. Something was stirring in the darkness.


End file.
